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Comparative Study
. 2017 Sep 16;17(1):463.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-017-1969-8.

Changes in trust and the use of Korean medicine in South Korea: a comparison of surveys in 2011 and 2014

Soohyun Kwon  1   2 , Shinhee Heo  3 , Dongjun Kim  4 , Seunghyun Kang  4 , Jong-Min Woo  5
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Changes in trust and the use of Korean medicine in South Korea: a comparison of surveys in 2011 and 2014

Soohyun Kwon et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: Korean medicine (KM) has been widely used in Korea. This study aimed to assess the general perceptions of KM, to investigate the patterns of its usage in 2014, and to compare the results with those of an earlier survey from 2011.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1000 Korean people. The questionnaire included items regarding trust in KM, reasons for distrust of KM, and visit frequency to KM clinics. This study used methods consistent with those of a 2011 survey to examine changes in attitudes over 3 years.

Results: Despite high rates of trust in KM, the visit frequency decreased from 69.3% in 2011 to 63.2% in 2014. Usage among young adults (in their 20s and 30s) was significantly reduced compared to all other age groups. The KM modality most commonly used by participants was acupuncture, whereas the use of moxibustion and cupping therapies has decreased since 2011. Men and women were most likely to distrust KM due to a "lack of scientific evidence" (59.3%) and "suspicion of KM safety" (47.4%), respectively.

Conclusions: The findings suggested that KM use and trust in KM were slightly lower in 2014 than in 2011. The decreases were most notable among individuals in their 30s and in the use of moxibustion in KM therapy. This study aimed to produce practical insights by reviewing patterns of KM use and perceptions over time. Additional surveys must be considered to produce a more in-depth analysis.

Keywords: Korean medicine; Perception; Periodic survey; Prevalence; South Korea.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was not needed for this study.

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All authors consent to this manuscript’s publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Reduction in KM trust between 2011 and 2014. a KM trust decreased from 66.6 to 59.4%. By contrast, trust in Western medicine was nearly the same between 2011 and 2014. b The decrease in KM trust appeared in all age groups, except for participants in their 60s. Favorable perceptions were reduced more significantly among members of the general public in their 20s and 30s than in any other age groups. The 2011 survey data were obtained from Woo et al. [11]. c The respondents perceived that acupuncture was the most trustable among the KM therapies. Regarding other KM therapies, approximately half of the participants perceived moxibustion, cupping, and KM herbal medicines as trustable
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reduction in TK clinic visits by age between 2011 and 2014. In 2014, there were larger decreases in visit frequency among participants their 20s and 30s than in the other age groups compared to the 2011 survey. The 2011 survey data were obtained from Woo et al. [11]
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Changes in the usage of KM therapies between 2011 and 2014. The graph shows the changes over time in the patterns of various therapies received in KM clinics. The 2011 survey data were obtained from Woo et al. [11]
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